Rachel flopped onto my bed while Taynese promptly made himself comfortable on my bean bag on the floor. I hung up my paint-stained satchel on the back of my door and took out Alec’s name card from its side pocket.

“I can’t believe you guys made a recording!”

“Hey don’t look at me girl, it was all Lucie.”

“Thanks Tay. Look, I’m sorry Rach, but I made the recording because I just wanted some assurance that we would have some form of evidence if something went wrong.”

“And nothing went wrong because he’s not a scammer. I told you he’s legit. His name card even says he’s a doctor!” Rachel pointed at the name card that I was holding.

“Not to burst ya bubble Rach honey, but it’s a piece of paper, which he coulda printed anywhere.”

Rachel’s bravado faded slightly, “B-but, the name card...”

Name card... printing...

Think back Lucine.

I closed my eyes and focused, sifting through my memories, as though rewinding and playing through my experiences. After a second, the training and knowledge from the extra-credit design module I had taken earlier in the year kicked in. I recalled the time that the lecturer had brought us on a field trip to a printing house. How the printing company had given us a tour of the facilities and had brought out samples for a hands-on experience, comparing different print qualities and paper.

I opened my eyes and scrutinised the classy silver-foil font and embossed logo on the name card. The even and vibrant colour with no bleeds or smudges. I felt the thickness of the card between my thumb and index finger. The name card even had a customised cut-out edge making it a unique shape.

I frowned in confusion. Alec was becoming an even greater mystery to me.

“Unfortunately Tay, Alec couldn’t have printed this just anywhere. This kind of quality is not usually done by small printing houses because they don’t have the machinery to make customised printing plates for embossing. And for larger printing establishments that only work with big clients, they would demand a higher printing quantity per run. Would Alec spend so much money on getting customized plates and printing in such high volume? And we’re talking about in the thousands at least.”

“So that means you’re convinced, right? He’s a legit doctor, so he’s definitely not a scammer right?” The hope in Rachel’s voice returned.

I sighed. I knew what she wanted me to say, but I just couldn’t bring myself to affirm her beliefs until I was absolutely certain. Even if I were to end up taking away her pillar of emotional support, I couldn’t let her fall prey to another scam.

“Girl, if that thirst trap was really a psychiatrist why he gotta pose as a life coach? I mean didn’t it only say he was a life coach on his IG?”

I think back, “You’re right Tay, he only mentioned about being a life coach.”

“I’m surprised you remember Tay. I thought you were just ogling his photos.”

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“I’m a man of depth Rach. I wasn’t ‘just ogling his photos’. I was ‘ALSO ogling his photos’.”

Taynese had a point. If Alec were a real psychiatrist wouldn’t he just advertise that on his profile? I’d seen so many doctors and each and every one of them had proudly displayed their qualifications front and centre of their clinic.

Why aren’t you doing the same Alec?

Why act as a life coach instead?

“Tay is right. Nothing makes sense. A qualified psychiatrist would make more money than a life coach anyway. And why isn’t he meeting his clients at his office if he indeed has one at the clinic?”

“And did you girls see him trippin’ earlier? What was that about?”

“Maybe he... maybe... umm...”

Taynese and I stared at Rachel waiting for an explanation.

“Okay, I don’t know why. But... can’t we just do a search on the clinic and see if it’s real?”

“There are better ways of finding out if someone is a scammer...” His condescending voice resurfaced in my mind.

“Okay Doctor Alec, let’s see if you really are who you say you are.”

I sat at my desk and opened up my laptop. I typed in ‘Dr. Alec Lee, Crescent Medical’ into the search bar and pressed enter. A series of photographs of him and others in white medical coats popped up. There was even a news article from two years ago showing him and a few others at a doctor’s conference at Harvard University. I scrolled past the photos and spotted a link to Crescent Medical’s website. I clicked it.

“Crescent Medical... started fifteen years ago...Okay. There’s a photo of their clinic and it has the same logo and font as on the name card.”

“Ya know, now that I see it, I think I’ve walked passed that street. Yeah... that club I go to is on the next lane over. So that building is definitely real.”

“Are you sure it’s the same one?”

“I’m not one huuundred percent that I saw a clinic in that building, but I for sure saw that brick building. See that graffiti on the side there? I remember making out in that alley with this one guy who has this sick tattoo on his pe-”

Rachel thankfully interrupted and pointed to the screen, “Lucie, there’s a link for the Doctors that they have on staff.”

I clicked on the link and Dr. Alec Lee came up at the top of the list. I clicked on his name.

Alec’s professional smile popped up again and underneath his photo was a short summary of his qualifications. The three of us scanned through the information in silence. After a short minute, our jaws dropped.

“Hang on. You’re telling me that Alec is only twenty-seven this year and that he graduated from Oxford University at the age of twenty-one at the top of his class?”

“Don’t doctors usually take a long time to graduate from their degree, doctorate, residency and all that?”

“For sure. My cousin is a doctor and he literally didn’t practice till he was thirty-ish.”

This is getting harder and harder to believe.

A genius psychiatrist who doesn’t want to be known as one?

But instead wants to masquerade as a life coach? Are you kidding me?

“Check if pretty boy actually went to Oxford. That’d be hard to fake right?”

I nodded in agreement, opened a new tab and searched ‘Alec Lee, Oxford University.’ The first thing that came up was an article in a newsletter published by Oxford University from eight years ago.

“Swimming Champ, Alec Lee Breaks Inter-Collegiate Record...” Under the headlines was a photograph of a smiling, very much younger Alec holding up a medal. It was the same smug look. It was definitely Alec.

Taynese whistled, “Our boy in a speedo is really doing it for me right now.”

“Shut up.”

Do I really have to swallow some humble pie and admit that I was wrong about him being a fraud?

I recalled the glint in his eyes and his patronizing gaze.

No.

Even if he really was a genuine genius-level psychiatrist and not a conman, it still didn’t explain why he was acting as a life coach. And if I really wanted to be technical about it, wasn’t his cover-up on Instagram a form of deception after all?

All the facts were staring at me in the face, but nothing was making sense.

He’s definitely still suspicious.

But how am I going to figure this all out? How am I going to protect Rachel?

“I guess there’s only one way to deal with this.”

“What’s that?”

“Pass me your phone.” I took Rachel’s phone and keyed in the numbers without hesitation.

“Hi, Crescent Medical? This is Lucine Miller. I would like to make an appointment with Dr. Alec Lee.”